Don't Wait for the Cavalry

I love the movies because the movies are full of heroes.  In the movies, the cavalry eventually comes.  Help is always on the way.  The bad guys generally win in Act One, but they rarely stay on top for long.  Almost without fail, they get their comeuppance in the end, usually in extremely satisfying fashion.  In the movies, the good guys reign supreme.  This is not always the case, perhaps it is not often the case, in the real world.  We need more heroes in real life.

Leaders need to be heroes.  We all know that being a great leader is a tall order.  We expect a great deal of our leaders.  We trust the leader to pilot the plane, so we rightly expect that he or she knows how to fly a plane.  The leader must be willing to prove his or her bona fides at a moment’s notice.  We expect that leader to be flying that plane to a better place than the one we just left.  We expect our leaders to care about us beyond our status as a means to their ends.  We require our welfare to hold a prominent place on their radar screen.  Ultimately, we expect our leaders to cherish their roles and serve us as they would serve themselves, landing us in our final destination quickly and safely.

We often fail to realize is that we are all leaders.  Most of us will become parents at some point in our lives, the first and the most significant leaders our children will ever know.  Children learn most of their lessons regarding “how to act” from their parents.  What is acceptable behavior?  What is right and what is wrong?  What and who should I tolerate?  How hard should I work?  Who should I aspire to be?  These lessons and many more are passed from parent to child.  Not only do parents lead children, but peers lead peers.  In every group, team or mob, someone other than the titular leader takes the first action to bolster or undermine the validity of the leader’s rule.  Ultimately, any leader’s grip on power is only as strong as the support of those that choose to follow.  In reality, there are not leaders and non-leaders, but situations in which we lead and situations in which we do not.  Therefore, none of us are exempt from the responsibility of leadership.

We need more heroes, but the solution to the problem is not to wait for them to arrive.  You must accept the challenge of becoming that hero yourself.  Your future, and ours, depends upon it.  Don’t assume you are ineligible because you lack a white horse, an invisible plane, a bulletproof cape or spider sense.  Don’t wait for the cavalry.  Don’t be afraid to be that leader that we so sorely lack.  Chances are someone close to you is waiting for you to mount your horse and take up the charge.